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December 29, 2025

To restore hope for families in poverty, let states lead on welfare reform

The holiday season offers a renewed sense of hope for many American families. But for those stuck in poverty, that hope can be short-lived. One of the most perplexing aspects of America’s social welfare system is that it works against two critical factors for families wanting to escape poverty: work and marriage. With help from…

November 20, 2025

When help holds families back

One of the central contradictions in American politics today is that, despite decades of measurable progress for low-income families – marked by declining poverty rates, rising household incomes, and greater levels of consumption – many families continue to feel as though they are falling behind. Child poverty rates have dropped to near historic lows, and…

September 3, 2025

The Shifting Composition Of SNAP Households

An underappreciated trend in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—formerly the Food Stamp Program—over the past two decades is the shift in participation toward childless households, particularly single-person households without children. In FY 2023 (the most recent year of data), almost two-thirds of SNAP households were childless, and 60% were single-person households. This represents a…

August 8, 2025

A win for Wisconsin families: Childcare in the 2025-2027 biennial state budget

Wisconsin’s 2025-2027 biennial budget includes several provisions aimed at improving the affordability of childcare in the Badger state, ending the misguided effort to directly support private childcare providers’ operating expenses with taxpayer dollars — and instead focusing on reducing costs for families through regulatory reform and targeted assistance. It’s a win for Wisconsin families. The…

April 28, 2025

Letter to the Editor: Sugary Treats Shouldn’t Be on the SNAP Menu

Allysia Finley is right to question the logic of allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, beneficiaries to spend billions of government dollars earmarked for nutrition on sugary beverages and candy (“Do Food Stamps Make People Fat?,” Life Science, April 21). Critics maintain that government-mandated SNAP restrictions would threaten personal freedom. But SNAP is an…

February 3, 2025

Legislators Want to Give Tens of Millions of Free Lunches to Students Who Don’t Need Them

Wisconsin state legislators recently introduced a series of bills to help working families across the state. Among these proposals is one that calls for providing free breakfast and lunch for all schoolchildren. At first glance, the initiative seems straightforward and compassionate — after all, who would oppose ensuring children have enough to eat? However, a closer look…

April 18, 2024

The Real Story Behind Food Insecurity in the US

Hunger in the US is rising at an alarming pace – or is it? Last year’s annual report on food insecurity in the US led lawmakers to believe hunger is on the rise, and, unsurprisingly, federal lawmakers are using rising levels of food insecurity to advocate for expansions to federal government programs. Unfortunately, policymakers are conflating hunger and…

January 9, 2024

The Success Sequence for Unmarried Mothers

As covered on these pages before, the success sequence—graduating high school, working full-time, and marrying before having children—has been proven to be an effective way for young people to avoid poverty. Research consistently finds that young people who follow these life steps have poverty rates dramatically below those who do not follow these steps. In a new study, I show that…

January 8, 2024

How to Actually Triumph over Poverty

On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in America during his State of the Union address. Six decades later, the nation has made tremendous strides, including a sizable reduction in the poverty rate as Americans enjoy an improved standard of living. Yet we have not won the war. Success…

June 23, 2023

SNAP Can Improve Nutrition, Help Farmers, and Support the Environment

A headline in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year read, “America Is Binging on Snacks, and Food Companies Are Eating It Up.” The article explains how American diets that were already heavily reliant on snacks and packaged foods, have only gotten more so since the pandemic – to the tune of $181 billion in household snack purchases…